Collector
by Brian1
Summary: Ash meets a girl named May, and she takes him to her special place.


**Collector**

Ash couldn't help but follow the girl in front of him, anxious to see where she was taking him.

"It's not too far from here. We're almost there, just a few more yards," she said briskly.

He chuckled nervously. "Are you sure? It's getting a little dark here. There's so many trees…I can hardly see the sun now."

She turned around and faced him. "You're not scared, are you?"

"I'm not scared!" was his terse reply. His face reddened considerably, embarrassed at the accusation.

Pikachu whined slightly as she put her hands through its silky fur. "Thanks for letting me carry Pikachu, Ash. I don't usually get to play with electric Pokémon since they hardly have these in this region."

He nodded absently, surveying his surroundings. The trees seemed to be growing taller and more ominous; it reminded him much of the Viridian Forest that he had explored, in what seemed like lifetimes ago.

'Has it really been that long?' he thought to himself.

_He noticed her as soon as he walked into town. She was quietly sitting on the front yard of her house, an injured Teddiursa whimpering in her lap. _

"_Hi there," he said, bending down to greet her. Pikachu jumped off his head and imitated the action, tilting its head at the new girl._

_She looked up, smiling faintly. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"_

_He put on a smug smile and crossed his arms. "Well, you might have seen me on television."_

_She gingerly put the injured Pokémon on a pillow, patting it a few times before jumping to her feet. "Ah, I remember now. You were on the Orange_ _Islands, weren't you? My memory is fuzzy, but there was something about the weather being odd at that time."_

_His face lit up. Not many people seemed to remember that he had saved the world, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that his exploits were known in a region he had only just entered._

"_I'm May, by the way," she said, extending her hand to him. _

_His face reddened, realizing he hadn't introduced himself. "Oh, hello May! I'm Ash, and I'm a number one trainer from Pallet_ _Town!"_

_She examined him closely, and he felt like he was being put on display or something close to that. A feeling of unease began in his stomach as she put her hand on his shoulders, then arms, and trailed down to his hips. _

"_What are you doing?"_

_She froze at this, her hands dangerously close to a certain appendage. "You're very strong. Do you work out?"_

_Pikachu looked at the girl with a tilt to its head._

"_Oh, I train with my Pokémon everyday. Can't be a strong trainer if you're a puny little guy, right?"_

_Her somewhat stoic face softened, and she suppressed a giggle. "Hey, you're new to this region, right?"_

"_Yeah, I just came from Kanto a few days ago."_

_She leaned in close, her lips just barely brushing his ear, eliciting a shudder from him. "Want to do something fun?"_

_His mind went blank, his pleasure centers active for the first time since Misty had left him._

"_Like…like what?" he asked breathlessly._

"_I don't do this, especially not with boys I just met," she whispered seductively, "but there's this nice place I know. Far enough from my house, so that when I go there no one knows about the kind of trouble I get into."_

_He knees were shaking, especially after the emphasis she put on the word "trouble." He wasn't sure if he heard her right, especially since he did have a tendency to be a little dense._

_He decided a neutral response would be the best way to gauge her reaction. "Well, I was planning on exploring the woods for some wild Pokémon. There are probably some of those in that…place of yours, right?"_

"_And much more," she added._

_He couldn't help but feel uneasy about her demeanor. She had just met him and already she was inviting him to some place in the forest, apparently far enough from her house. Something didn't quite sit with him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Lead the way."_

_A faint smile once more appeared on her face. "But before we go, why not have a drink? You must be thirsty."_

_She wrapped her fingers around his and led him into her house. "How about some berry drink? It's a Hoenn specialty."_

He felt his throat dry up a little, wishing he had refilled his bottle earlier. The drink she gave him didn't quite quench his thirst, and was making his stomach do somersaults, but he was too polite to say anything about it.

Pikachu whimpered, and looked a little red in the face. Ash felt sorry for his little friend; perhaps the odd regional drink and subsequent pokéblocks hadn't done much for it either.

"Are we almost there?" he asked, his tone faintly impatient. He had learned – the hard way – that it was not wise to voice one's concerns in a harsh or rough manner.

She didn't respond, and continued to walk further into what seemed to be a twisting dirt path.

Her silence caused him to feel that uneasy feeling he had felt earlier. Why was he going along with her, again? Was it the lure of new, unknown Pokémon, or the fact that she was beautiful?

Since when did he even think like Brock?

However, he couldn't help but be attracted to May. She was nothing like Misty, which made his desire all the greater.

The silence was growing uncomfortable. He decided that some small-talk would alleviate the situation. "So, you're a trainer, right?"

She stopped momentarily. "My father won't let me."

He ran up and faced her, surprise evident in his features. "Why not!"

She shrugged, and continued to walk, with Ash walking backwards in order to face her and keep up. "He was afraid that I would…get into trouble. So I'm not allowed to have any Pokémon of my own."

"But what about that that Teddiursa you were playing with?"

Her expression looked blank, and for a second she looked like she was about to say something, but ultimately decided not to. "Sometimes I play with the Pokémon that my father brings home, while he's out on business. There's nothing wrong with that, right?"

The glazed look in her eyes as she said that sent a shiver own his spine. "What's that smell?"

"What smell? I don't smell anything," she answered plainly.

It was faint, but it was there. A lifetime spent wandering around forests allowed Ash the ability to distinguish when there was something out of place amongst trees and Pokémon. It was a familiar scent, something that brought back fuzzy memories of a dark place.

Pikachu had stopped whimpering, although he only noticed when he realized that it was very silent, even more so then just a few moments ago.

He looked up, and saw that the trees, at least the ones in his view, held no Pokémon in their branches. Ground-level was the same; all he could see was grass and trees and the dirt path that May leading him down, and some odd structures a little farther down ahead.

"We're here," she announced, turning back to face Ash.

He noticeably swallowed, the look on her face startling him. Her facial expression was different from before. And that scent from earlier was strong here, causing him more discomfort.

Both things were out of place in the relatively serene, if eerily quiet, forest.

His stomach was doing more somersaults, and the stench was not helping; he felt like throwing up.

After petting Pikachu, she set him down, near a few stones ordered in a particular way. There were a lot of stones and pebbles, in what appeared to be a sizable clearing, with rays of light peaking through the dense foliage.

"What is this place?" he asked, awed by the unusual sight before him.

May crept up behind him, arms holding his waist and hands hurriedly unbuckling his belt. Ash barely managed to push off from her, unsure of what was going on, his head pounding and the stench becoming stronger.

"My-my head h-hurts…" he whimpered, his balance wavering as he wearily fell-sat on the grass.

His world was spinning around and around and around, and he struggled to keep himself up straight, although the pounding in his head was getting increasingly louder and louder.

She bent down next to him, tossing aside his hat carelessly and roughly putting her cold fingers through his hair. "I was afraid of this."

Through the painful haze his eyes scanned something yellow next to him, and his eyes widened at the horrific image: Pikachu was lying face down on the dirt, and it was deathly still. Its tiny chest did not raise or fall and its fur had turned a dull yellow. There was no sound coming from it.

On closer inspection, he saw that blood was coming from its mouth, and that there were dark yellow bruises on its sides that Ash had not noticed before.

Tears welled in his eyes. "Pikachu…"

He felt himself starting to numb, and his mind barely registered that May was still roughly stroking his hair.

"That concoction worked too fast. Next time, I shouldn't feed them so much at one time. It takes the fun out of it," she said, her voice strangely indifferent to the tragedy in front of her.

The stench was rancid at this point, and he felt sick to this stomach. "What did you…do…?"

She closed her eyes and kissed him deeply, a kiss, however, devoid of passion and emotion. When she opened her eyes, he found himself staring into what was a completely different person than the girl he had met only a few hours ago.

"You taste so good. It's a shame I won't be able to play with you longer, though. Guess that little drink did a similar number on you. Good thing you didn't eat any of those pokéblocks, otherwise," she said, gesturing over to Pikachu, "you'd end up like your little friend. You see, I want you to be conscious for this."

By now, his body had completely numbed, and his pounding headache had been reduced to a dull, half daze.

She took out a shovel and started digging, before stopping a few minutes after she started. From what Ash could see, it was a shallow grave, so it couldn't be for him.

May picked up Pikachu and without hesitation, dumped it into the shallow hole. She then proceeded to bury the tiny electric rodent with dirt, silently and efficiently. Ash couldn't lift a finger in protest, as his whole body was unwilling to respond to his brain.

"Why…" he managed to whisper.

"It's simple, really," she said absently, setting the shovel down and gathering some stones and pebbles.

He struggled not to fall unconscious, afraid of what would happen to him if he let himself go. The rancid stench was not helping him concentrate at all, and it only served to cause him to feel deathly ill.

And then it clicked. Now he remembered where that stench was from, but it had been so long ago that he had almost forgotten it. It was back, back when he was still in Kanto. He, along with Misty and Brock, had ventured to Lavender Town to retrieve a Ghost Pokémon to battle Sabrina…they had to go to the tower where all the cemeteries of dead Pokémon resided…and that was the first time he was treated to the stench of death.

His eyes widened in fear, as he realized why there were all sorts of rocks arranged in different patterns in the clearing: they were grave markers.

May hummed, putting the finishing touches on the stone and pebble pattern on Pikachu's grave.

"My best work yet," she said, wiping the dirt and dust from her hands onto her skirt. She turned her attention to Ash, whose eyes were as wide as dinner plates, his face a study in fear.

"I guess you figured out what this special place of mine is for, huh Ash?" she said sweetly, bending down so she was able to examine him.

"I've always expressed an interest in Pokémon, ever since I could remember," she began, tying Ash up with what appeared to be rope, "but I wasn't like the other children."

His tired attempt to struggle out of his bonds earned him a punch to the face and a stern look from the girl. "I didn't play like they did. I liked playing in my own, special way."

She proceeded to tie his hands together. "I would play doctor with them. You know, like a Nurse Joy. I would make my own food for them, and feed it to them. Sometimes they didn't like it too much. You'd be surprised at how many poisonous berries there are in this region. It makes it really hard for trainers to pick the right berries to make their pokéblocks out of."

"Over time, I dropped the pretense of playing nurse. Sometimes I would find a stray Pokémon and bring it to this clearing we're in," her voice lowered to a whisper. "You can't imagine how pleasing it is to see how much pain one can take before they die. Some of them last minutes, while the stronger ones can last hours, and on occasion, even days."

"My dad didn't approve of me handling Pokémon after he found out I had "mistakenly" poisoned one of his prized fighters, so I wasn't allowed to become a trainer. Of course, since he's a gym leader, he kept my secret his secret. After all, his reputation would be ruined if they found out about my…unusual hobbies."

He was sufficiently bound to her satisfaction, and she allowed herself to smile. "Since I'm not allowed to train, I collect Pokémon in my own special way."

"That Pikachu of yours will make a fine addition to my collection."

The ropes on his arms and legs were too tight for him to loosen, much to his horror. His self preservation instinct kicked in and he pushed aside the image of his dead Pikachu, and put his last bit of energy into bursting free from his confines.

But the ropes were just too tight, although for some reason his vision was beginning to return to him, and his mind wasn't as hazy as it was earlier.

"You're the first boy I've ever collected, though. I've only played with Pokémon, and boys are usually scared of me, so not many of them go near me. It's a shame, really. I wanted to do so many things to you, but you probably won't last long," she explained, a look of disappointment on her twisted features.

"Luckily, you can still feel pain after that poison I gave you, and…I've always wanted to hear what a boy sounded like when they screamed," she said, adding, "and please don't be shy about screaming. No one will hear you, so don't think you have to be a man about it."

She pulled out an assortment of tools from her side pouch, and laid them out neatly next to him, allowing him a full view of her blood stained instruments. His eyes widened the largest she had seen today, and she had to suppress a giggle at his shocked expression.

She leaned in and whispered into his ear seductively, "We're going to have a whole world of fun, Ash."

**End**


End file.
